July in the Garden

July is pretty spectacular in the garden this year. I've been really pleased with the new planting in the front garden where we had a big overgrown tree chopped down earlier in the year. We deliberately tried to choose plants that would come at their best during June and July and be a magnet for the butterflies and bees. We picked various colours of blue, lilacs, purples with a few pink and white plant varieties too. 

The weather conditions during the last year have been good for breeding butterflies and we seem to have literally created our very own butterfly garden, so I've been delighted. Planting out new plants and just seeing how they turn out and what unfolds can be so rewarding! 

Varying heights of purple wallflowers and different varieties of lavender. 

Butterfly enjoying the blue catmint. All the blue and purple plants have been covered in butterflies. Every time we come out of the house and walk past this area we are treated to dozens of butterflies fluttering up from the plants. It has been fascinating, you find yourself stopping and staring, it's not so good if you are in a rush! 

Enjoying some verbena, which is now out in full. 

Delphiniums are out at the back of the borders. 

Wallflowers, lobelia and geraniums make a good combination by the back patio. 

The water lilies are just beginning to flower now, the pond is full of their leaves and blooms. 

Bright pink carnations make a great colour combination with the bronze leaves and pink flowers of the heuchera. 

Sidalcea malviflora flowering in the back border. 

The tomatoe baskets are full of fruit and are ripening nice and early with all the hot sunshine we've been having. 

There are still plenty of foxgloves blooming and popping up in all different places. I love the colour combinations of this one. 

I've made a few pots full of wildflowers planted from seed and they are looking great at the moment, full of vibrant colours. Cornflowers are one of my favourites, I love this shade of blue. 

We have quite a few hebe plants flowering in pinks, blues and purples, another good one for the butterflies! 

There are lots of these little froglets around. We have to look out for them jumping into the house. The pond is full of frogs, when we have the heavy showers we've had recently they all seem to come out of the pond and jump across the garden. It's a mass exodus of frogs and quite entertaining and funny to watch! 

Do You Remember...the Wildflower Meadow?

We visited St Ives in Cambridgeshire last week and just happened to stumble across a stunning meadow, running alongside the edge of the River Ouse, Hemingford Meadow. It was one of those typical English, early summer type of days.  As we walked through the meadow by the edge of the river, my thoughts went straight back to my childhood and I conjured up those memories of going for long walks in the nearby countryside. Those days when the summers seemed endless, free and full of fun, the sun shining most of the time, big fluffy white cloud sort of days! 

I started looking a little more closely at the plants and wildlife and remembered the fun we had...

The river bank was edged with fool's parsley. The foliage looks a bit like real parsley, but it is in fact deadly poisonous. That didn't bother us back then though, we used to pick it along with other wildflowers and bring them home to put in water filled jam jars. Nowadays it can be unlawful to pick wild flowers as many are endangered species and we probably wouldn't want our children or grandchildren picking poisonous flowers! 

We used to have such fun with the dandelion seed heads. Can you remember playing the dandelion clock game? Blowing the seed heads and seeing if you could count up to twelve. 

The buttercups were in abundance! There is nothing like the sight of a meadow bursting with yellow. A real sign of summer. I was sorely tempted to pick one and shine it under Rob's chin and ask him if he likes butter. Do you remember this game? If your chin looked yellow from the buttercup reflection, then 'yes' you did like butter! We'd play this for ages, chasing each other around. 

Then there were always those dreaded nettles looming everywhere, we always got stung, however careful we were. Our arms and legs would get big red welts on them. Then it was time to search for dock leaves. We would hunt and hunt until we found them and then rub them on our nettle stings, supposedly to sooth them. They seemed to do the trick and we would carry on with our fun. 

We would wander along whistling on grass blades, well trying to whistle on grass blades in my case! There'd be other things to see, little plants of interest here and there, such as the black horehound that I spotted today by the riverbank. It grows on roadsides, banks and by hedges and is sometimes named 'Stinking Roger', as when it gets bruised it gives off an unpleasant smell, so the cows don't eat it. If the leaves are infused, however, it is supposed to be good for hyperchondriacal and hysterical complaints. I must remember that! 

There were lots of clover in bloom today peeping out in crops amongst the buttercups. I remember us being amused for ages, searching the fields for a four leaved clover! You are supposed to have 'good luck' if you find one.  I wonder now if our parents were just good at making things up to keep us amused! 

If you are lucky and look carefully there will always be some other interesting things to see on a walk through a meadow. In those childhood days it used to farm stock, fields of sheep and lambs or cows, sometimes with their calves. We would stop and catch fish from underneath rocks in the streams and brooks and that would keep us busy for hours yet again. Sometimes we might cross a field with a bull, only if it was tethered to a ring in its nose, but we would still be scared to death as went past! 

Today, the meadow I was in, was a riverside meadow, so there were different things to see here. Colourful butterflies and bees were hovering over the wildflowers. There were ducks and their ducklings on the river. I looked carefully across the riverbank towards the trees and spotted a heron, nicely camuflauged and waiting patiently for its next prey. 

Hemingford Meadow is situated on the edge of St Ives in Cambridgeshire. It has easy walking through ancient meadow, hedgerows, and along the riverside. Sometimes it can be flooded during winter and bad weather, but it has a beautiful open aspect on a sunny day.